Showing posts with label awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label awards. Show all posts

Mar. 8: Handsome Men’s Club

Did you watch the Oscars last night? I thought it was kind of a yawner, but there were chuckle-worthy moments here and there. I loved Sandra Bullock’s speech. I loved that Avatar didn’t run away with every award. And I thought Helen Mirren, as always, looked better than most the women half her age.

Today I found this star-studded video from Jimmy Kimmel’s special post-Oscar show that I had to share. It’s almost 9½ minutes long, but you gotta watch until the end. And don’t blink—there’s a Taye Diggs moment not to be missed.

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Jan. 16: Oscar prep

oscar Last year Loveliest Lori made an almost 100 percent successful attempt to see all the Oscar-nominated films before the Oscar awards show. I was impressed with her efforts, and a little jealous that she didn’t alert me to her goal until it was nearly complete. We went to Milk together, but otherwise most of last year’s nominees were left unseen by my critical eyes. My embarrassingly brief list of nominees I saw pre-awards show:

Lori suggested we see the (possible) nominees together this year, but so far we haven’t managed to connect for a single movie—granted, we haven’t exactly tried. With the nominations being announced on February 2, and the next Academy Awards ceremony coming up on March 7, we better get busy movie-going, Lori!

According to a recent Entertainment Weekly list, here are the 25 movies we should see before Oscar night:

  1. Up in the Air
  2. Avatar
  3. The Hurt Locker
  4. Precious
  5. Inglourious Basterds
  6. Invictus
  7. An Education
  8. Up
  9. A Serious Man
  10. The Messenger
  11. Julie & Julia
  12. A Single Man
  13. Crazy Heart
  14. The Blind Side
  15. The Last Station
  16. Nine
  17. Star Trek
  18. District 9
  19. Fantastic Mr. Fox
  20. The Lovely Bones
  21. (500) Days of Summer
  22. It’s Complicated
  23. The Young Victoria
  24. Bright Star (on DVD Jan. 26)
  25. The Informant! (on DVD Feb. 23)

How much “Jen, you’re not lame or loser-y AT ALL!!” credit do I get for seeing only one of these movies so far, but seeing it at least 25 times??? OK, fine…

  • I want to see Up in the Air. I’ve heard good and bad, but I’m willing to suffer through a couple hours o’ my boy George.
  • Avatar is sooo not my kind of thing, but with the rave reviews I’ve read, I might have to make myself go.
  • It would take a much bigger effort for me to watch Inglourious Basterds. Not just because of the spelling of the title; I hate me some Brad Pitt acting, and I’m not a Tarantino fan either.
  • Why haven’t I watched Julie & Julia yet? Blogging, cooking, Amy Adams, Meryl Streep? This movie has it all.
  • A Single Man? Definitely.
  • Nine, maybe.
  • I got Star Trek on DVD for Victor for Christmas because I’m the best wife in the whole, wide world. I suppose I could watch it. It wouldn’t get awards for Best Picture or anything, would it? I mean, it’s a shitty Star Trek movie, right? Heh heh heh…
  • While I loved the book The Lovely Bones, there’s no way I’ll watch the movie with Stanley Tucci as the very-creepy bad guy. I’m afraid I’d never see him the same again. Couldn’t stand that.
  • I want to see It’s Complicated. Good cast.
  • I thought the trailer and commercials of The Informant! looked pretty watch-worthy.

I’d love to hear personal reviews of anything you’ve seen that you recommend or don’t. Please share!

I’m not sure I’ve ever watched an Oscars ceremony with a strong opinion on who should win based on the actual movies; typically I root for the actors I like best or the ones who look the least weird that night. I would love to be a little bit more objective on who actually deserves the awards… or would it just irritate me, then, when my favorites didn’t win? Whatevs. I hope to see at least one more of these films in the next six weeks.

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Sep. 27: Emmy pride

When I was little my best pal was a neighbor boy, Seth. There was just a couple weeks’ difference in our ages, and apparently we got along well from the very beginning (my mom’s memory of this time is much better than mine, as we were not even two years old when we “met”). One of the most enduring memories of my childhood is that Seth and I were, for a time, inseparable. I was seven when we moved away from Medford but we still visited frequently and continued to be friends. Over the years we grew apart, although I’ve kept in touch with Seth’s parents.

My mom told me this morning that an article about Seth was published in today’s Medford Mail Tribune: Medford native honored for 9/11 documentary. He won three Emmy awards at this year’s ceremonies for his work on 102 Minutes That Changed America. I easily found the video of this documentary piece, split into two parts:



I think it was a couple years ago that I watched a 9/11 documentary and saw Seth’s name roll past in the end credits. What an unexpected surprise! Now, looking at his IMDB page, I assume it was National Geographic: Inside 9/11 that I had seen. I’m fascinated by the many amateur video compilations of that day, and that particular one was especially well done.

Odd, but I feel enormous pride that Seth has worked on projects like this—as if it has anything to do with me. But isn’t that how we always are, when people from our past show up in a very public and non-scandalicious way?

And here I thought the Emmys were all about Neil Patrick Harris and questionable fashion choices. Turns out they’re also about congratulations to long-lost friends.

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Sep. 21: Awards show fashions

Emmy Award In my opinion, one of the best parts of watching awards shows is commenting on the gowns. This is most fun while sitting with someone who’s willing to play along, or in the case of last year’s Oscars ceremonies, live-chatting with Loveliest Lori throughout the show. I so enjoy reading Go Fug Yourself—“the Fug girls” are as catty and cruel as I tend to be while sitting on my couch in jammies and a ponytail, stuffing my face with highly fattening snacks.

I missed most of last night’s Emmy Awards telecast because we were driving home from Seattle. I watched the tail end of it when I got home and am slowly catching up on what I missed, thanks to that beautiful thing called the Internet, this morning.

Yahoo! TV did an awards show fashions report card—61 photos of celebrities in their Emmy wear. The way the photos appear on my laptop, I have to scroll down to see the grade they gave each ensemble, so I started playing a game; I’d look at the photo and try to guess the grade they’d give it. And I swear, I was wrong more than half the time! And more than half of those times, I was not only wrong, but way off! Like, by several letters!

“Ooh, that one’s gorgeous! They’ll give it an A for sure!”

Scroll down, and they say, “Booooring! D+.”

This is one of many reasons, my friends, that I do not work in the fashion industry.

Try this for yourself and see how you do. If you watched any of the red carpet pre-shows last night you’ll already have an idea of what people thought, but it’s still fun. For the record:

  • I said DARTH VADER! out loud when I saw Kristen Wiig’s gown. Score one for Jen! I love that girl, but the embellishments on that dress were horrible.
  • Sarah Silverman, why are you dressed (and acting) like Dakota Fanning?
  • Holly Hunter? Stunning. Sigourney Weaver too.
  • Sandra Oh’s look was simple and beautiful. Better than I’ve seen her in a long time.
  • Jon Cryer looked like an idiot. And did Cicely Tyson fire her stylist?
  • Loved Alicia Witt’s look.
  • Phoebe Price, WTF? You too, Victoria Rowell.

Where my opinion differed most from the “experts” at Yahoo! TV:

  • I thought Neil Patrick Harris was Fab.U.Lous. Missed most of his hosting, but what I saw was good. Loves me some Doogie!
  • Jennifer Love Hewitt—too prom-like, and kinda boring. Just “meh.” She’s never one to push the envelope, though.
  • Tina Fey was gorgeous. I loved her hair.
  • Toni Collette—like her and think she’s a great actress, but hated the pink and hated the ruffly stuff. Puke-us maximus.
  • Those Kardashian girls. If we stop looking at them, will they go away?
  • Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Ugh. Not a fan of that style of gown.
  • Ginnifer Goodwin. Hated the color and the style of that dress. Hate how she spells her name. Adorable girl, but icky look last night.
  • Mariska Hargitay always looks gorgeous.
  • Kate Walsh. I don’t get what was so great about her gown, except that she probably didn’t have to hold in her stomach most the night.
  • Padma Lakshmi looked bold and beautiful, IMO. I don’t love that purple, but she wore it well.
  • Christina Hendricks’ gown made her head look too tiny for her body. Or is that not an illusion? I don’t know.
  • I thought Jon Hamm was a cutie in his “nerdy bow tie.”
  • Giuliana Rancic is a friggin’ bobblehead. I have never understood why people think she’s attractive.

As for the awards, I was about half and half on the winners. Alec Baldwin definitely deserved his Emmy, but 30 Rock should have gone home with more than they did. Jon Stewart = yummy. Justin Timberlake = yes, please! smiley

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Jul. 18: But we’re the *real* winners

The RougeThe Rouge—my nephew’s band, in case you’ve not checked in here for a while or, like, EVER—were just voted Best Indie Pop Band in the 2009 Westword Music Showcase.

Are we surprised? Not one bit.

Are we thrilled, proud, elated, and honored to be connected to these fine young men? You bet!

Did we miss out by not attending the awards show in Denver this past week? It appears so.

Here’s a photo of The Rouge giving their acceptance speech. That’s Stephen on the far right, the tall guy not mooning the crowd. The white ass belongs to Josh, the lead singer. I like to think it’s his fun personality that led him to this impromptu part of the speech, but he probably had some help from Jack Daniels too.

Kathy didn’t make it to the award show either, but Josh promised he’d re-enact his performance for her anytime. Such a generous guy.

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Feb. 19: Another Oscar pick

The Lovely Lori, Curt-D (like Ice-T) and I saw a matinee of Milk yesterday, and if I remember correctly (sooooo much booze…) we gave it an enthusiastic six thumbs up. I thought it was very well done. The story moved at a fast pace and I liked that there was a lot of real footage mixed in with Sean Penn’s fake hairline.

As most of this story occurred before I turned ten years old, I had forgotten how evil Anita Bryant was back then. On her web site, which I am not going to provide a link to because she is still quite evil, her profile states: “Anita liked that she will always be remembered as a witness to and defender of the Truth in the twentieth century. A real heroine.” Oh, yeah. She’s somethin’, alright. Love your fellow man, my arse. “Christians” that incite fear and hatred over things they don’t understand? How are they heroic? Apparently the poor woman has gone through some bankruptcies and other difficult personal trials. Sing with me now: KAAARMAAAA! (Or is this the very definition of schadenfreude?)

Although I found the story captivating and liked that it filled in the gaps of what I already knew about Harvey Milk, it was incredibly heartbreaking at the same time. Not just because of his assassination—of course that was sad—but because I see how little we’ve moved forward in his cause. Yes, Milk made some huge strides, but until homosexuals have all the rights that heterosexuals do, his work is not done. The movie made me want to march!

Not having seen too many other Oscar-nominated films this year, I don’t know what Milk’s chances are for winning, but it certainly deserves the nominations it got. Here’s an official Oscar ballot for you to track your picks as you watch the ceremonies Sunday night.

BTW, it was all I could do not to make the title of this post “Got Milk?” You’re welcome.

Feb. 17: My Oscar picks

The movies I’ve seen that are nominated for Oscars this year:

That is all.

Because I’m a big loser. And it seems I only get to see movies that are rated G and sometimes PG and they are almost never nominated for awards because they suck.

But tomorrow I’m seeing Milk with The Lovely Lori. On Sunday I’ll probably be rooting for Milk to win in every category, even if I hate it.

Feel free to share your picks in a comment.

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